So this is the future?
by cgaussie
Summary: Part 1: The Irken Embassy is attacked, Zim's only son's life is in danger, and two old friends meet up again.


Little gleam of hope  
By: Cartman's Girl  
  
Note: Yes, it is a future story. It includes my fan character Cten, so yeah... this is kinda be a stupid. There'll be some flash backs, and right now it starts with the attack. Well you'll see.  
  
---  
  
The building lay in ruins, fire burning brightly against the night sky, and the screams of terror were heard for miles. It was gone, one of the greatest buildings in the Irken history was destroyed, by a single human.  
  
But these thoughts didn't care to Zim, leader of the Irkens that now plagued the Earth like a deadly virus. What mattered to him, were the two most important Irkens in his life were in that building when it came crashing down.  
  
Yet so had he. His right leg's black boot was gone, and his blood was seeping from a great wound caused by a flying piece of metal. But this pain didn't seem to bother him at all. He activated his robotic legs and they shot out, moving debris away from him.  
  
"ZED!" his voice screamed out, while Irkens around him were trying to find survivors of the great attack. With the use of his legs, Zim headed out over the terrible mess.  
  
He passed many a dead Irken, and a few human bodies as well. The humans didn't matter to Zim, but some of the Irkens did. They had been his Embassy. The greatest minds in the Irken world and now they were dead, and all because of that one parasite Zim could never squash.  
  
Soon Zim was further into the mess then he'd ever been, turning over debris with his legs, trying to see the forms of life he was searching for.  
  
Then he heard it.  
  
A faint cry in the distance, a young Irken's cry. Immediately Zim leapt forward towards the cry and began batting the rocks away, and finally he saw him.  
  
The small body was mangled, bones broken and piercing through it's green skin and a lot of its blood surrounded it. Yet it was still alive, that's what shocked Zim. It was horrible, his own flesh and blood like this.  
  
Fury wept through him like never before, right now he could have killed anything he could see, but he couldn't. Right now he had to get his son to safety and to save his life. Zim quickly removed his jacket and carefully wrapped it around the young Irken, held him close to himself and ran back.  
  
He'd have to try to find Cten later... if she was still alive.  
  
~*~  
  
The Health Units were jammed packed, Irkens laid in the hallways tending to their wounds, if they were conscious that is. Never before had there been such a blood thirsty attack upon the Irken Empire. No one knew who would be bold enough to do such an awful thing.  
  
Yet Zim knew. He had always known this day would come, but why had it been the day he had brought his young son to the Embassy to show him how the whole system worked? It's like he always knew Zim's every move, and that heated Zim like petrol onto a roaring fire.  
  
Irkens made way as their leader made his way, limping mind, through the hallways with the small bundle in his arms. Blood was running down his front, and his legs but he didn't matter about that. He could always be saved, but his son was more important now.  
  
"Imperial Zim!" an Irken nurse looked shocked as Zim slammed the doors open to the Private area, she dropped her mug of hot coco as he entered.  
  
"No time for greetings now. My son is near death and I need the best Irken and even Human technology to save him." Zim handed the small child to her, "He's broken a lot of bones, and his head.. oh his head." he shook his own.  
  
The nurse almost fainted as she moved a piece of Zim's jacket away, but quickly placed it back. She looked up at Zim, determination in her eyes.  
  
"We will do the very best and more then that, sir." she replied.  
  
"You better." he snapped back, and left the room.  
  
~*~  
  
Cten's eyes slowly fluttered open. She slowly sat up, her robes strewn around her and some of her own blood now dotted the clothing.   
  
"Urgh..." she muttered to herself as her eyes remained unfocused. After a shake of her head, her eyes finally regained sense. She was still in the Embassy, but she had been alone when the attack happened. She doubted anyone even knew she was there... curse why they had put the little female Irkens room so far away.  
  
She staggered to her feet, and felt a pain jab her in her side, checking, she saw a wound there. She cursed in Irken as she wrapped some of her robes over it, keeping the blood from flowing anymore.  
  
Then she saw it.  
  
Well, him more like.  
  
A figure, that of a human man lay crumpled near the wall. Obviously he had tried to get out of the Embassy in time, but now he was somewhat trapped under a rock which pinned him to the ground.  
  
Cten took her chances and advanced slowly, to see if the human was all right. She, unlike Zim actually felt sorry for how humans were now being treated. They were maids, butlers, and all these other nasty jobs. They were called parasites to the Irkens. But still, she believed they were still important.  
  
She gasped when she heard the figure moan slightly, and stepped back. The figure tried to move, but finding himself kinda lodged under a rock swore in Earthling.  
  
"Uh... is your leg broken?"  
  
The figure seemed to freeze after hearing Cten's voice, and his head slowly turned to look at her.  
  
She gasped. It couldn't be, no way in Earth and Irk could he be still alive...  
  
"...Dib?" she asked, she wasn't sure really. He just looked like, well, Dib. His round glasses were now oval shaped and a tint of yellow to the lenses, his hair was still kinda in the same style, but hair straggled free and lay in his face. What he wore was all black, black shirt, pants and a jacket.  
  
"Get away from me you disgusting disease ridding scumbag!" he screamed at her, yup, it was Dib.  
  
"Dib... what, what are you doing here?" Cten asked, as if he hadn't just insulted her.  
  
"Oh you know thought I might pop by, have some tea and cookies... I was trying to kill you bastards, that's what I was doing!" he spat out the second half of his claim at her angrily.  
  
"And I see you're just as injured like everyone else here... or maybe you're more spared." she replied calmly, walking over to him slowly. He leaned away as best he could, before pain shot through him.  
  
"Don't come near me!" he screamed, "You'll just turn me into the Irken Armada and have me executed!"  
  
"I wouldn't do that." Cten said.  
  
"...what, why?" he asked.  
  
"Tell me, Dib. You're tired of how the human race is treating you, is that right?"  
  
He looked pretty surprised at a question like that, coming from an Irken.  
  
"...yeah...?" he asked,  
  
"You want to see your kind live free again, and not made to live how they are now? Not to be treated like inferiors but be of the same stance as Irkens?"  
  
"Damn right."  
  
"...that's what I want." she replied.  
  
The two stared at each other, the first time their eyes actually met all throughout their conversation. Dib was flabbergasted. An Irken, one who looked pretty important was here, and they were talking as if they were of the same species! But who was she? That was a good question.  
  
"Who... who are you?" he asked quietly. A smile formed across her face,  
  
"How quickly you forget, Dib." she replied.  
  
"Huh?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.  
  
"It's me, Cten." she said, putting her armoured hand to her chest.  
  
"...Cten? No way! I, I saw you going back to Irk once the Tallest had told you to return! Just before..." he trailed off, shuddering at how insane Zim had become once Cten had been forced to leave.  
  
"I was sent back, but I was then brought back as well. Zim wanted me back, and given how much power he soon possessed on Earth, the Tallest complied and sent me." she then pointed to a necklace that hung around her neck, pure gold and studded with diamonds and rubies. "He then made me his Soul Mate."  
  
"You're married?" he asked, he didn't even know Irkens knew of marriage..  
  
"Pretty much..." she replied.  
  
"And you're against what he does?" Dib was getting more shocked with every thing she said.  
  
"I always was, when he used to babble on about being in charge and having humans under him... I always told him it was stupid. But... obviously he got what he wanted." Cten sat down on the ground besides Dib now, and he didn't rear back in fear this time.  
  
"I see... um, could you do something for me?" he asked,  
  
"Shoot."   
  
"Could you get this rock off me, it really hurts."  
  
"As long as you swear under your God that you won't harm me in any way, like… before."  
  
Dib hung his head at that comment, he knew very well what she spoke of.  
  
"I swear." he replied.  
  
~*~  
  
"But why should I help to save the life of the blood thirsty bastard that runs this planet!?" a doctor who worked at the hospital, obviously wasn't pleased about what he had been told to do.  
  
"Because HUMAN, your human technology is needed to aid with our Irken technology! Would you prefer to be the dead one?" snapped back an Irken doctor, dressed in white.  
  
"At times, yes." replied the human doctor.  
  
"Oh you humans, you crack me up... now get to work before I crack you up!" snapped the Irken as he got his tools ready.  
  
The human doctor looked over at the operating table. The mangled body of the young Irken laid there, it had been immobilized by it's pod. So it would be unconscious all throughout the proceedings. The very look of the creature made the doctor cringe.  
  
"Fine... when I took my doctor oath I swore to help save lives... who knew I'd soon be saving Irkens."  
  
~*~  
  
"Ow, watch it!" Dib wailed as Cten was now bandaging his leg, along with a long plank of wood which would work as a splint.  
  
"Oh stop being a baby!" she replied, tying it off. "There!"  
  
"...thanks..." he muttered.  
  
"Your welcome Dib. So, now what are you going to do? Before the Irken Armada possibly arrive and cart you off?" she smirked slightly.  
  
"Try to get out of here." he replied, trying to stand up. Seeing his difficulty, Cten took his arms and helped him stand up. He wobbled slightly, and grabbed onto her arm to steady himself.  
  
Then he realised how tall she was now, she was taller then him by over a head! Meaning he had a clear view of her chest plate. He blushed somewhat and glanced away,  
  
"Thank you..." he muttered.  
  
"Your welcome. And now Dib, both of us are to leave this place." she replied. Dib looked up at her in some confusment.  
  
"Both?" he asked somewhat stupidly. She nodded.  
  
"Zed will be fine with Zim... the two are so much alike... and I don't want to be part of this world anymore. I want a world where Irkens and Humans live together in harmony, not at war constantly." she replied.  
  
"Uh, who's Zed?" he asked quietly.  
  
"I'll explain later. Right now, we have to get out of here." she said, glancing behind her.  
  
"But wait," Dib stopped her before she had the chance of putting her hands around his waist to possibly lift him off the ground.  
  
"What?" she asked,  
  
"You've got to make them think you're dead, if they come here they'll think you've been kidnapped-er, Irknapped." Dib explained. Cten paused.  
  
"I never thought of that.... a-hah! Wait here." she then leant Dib against the wall, and hurried off into the darkness. There was a brilliant shot of light from further away, and she came running back.  
  
She now wore human-esque clothing, tho it was stretched on her body proportions, and the necklace that hung around her neck was now gone.  
  
"What did you-" Dib started, but she clasped her now visible hands around his waist, and lifted him up into her arms.  
  
"Shh, we have to be quiet now." she replied.  
  
He nodded simply, and then her spider legs shot out of her pod, and she pushed through into a room. It was like an attack had never happened at all, it was empty and clean. The window stood in the wall, and she kicked it open with one of her legs, and the two vanished out of the window and out into the night.  
  
  
To be continued!  
Ooo the suspence of it all.


End file.
